Dive Brief:
- OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals said March 14 it is moving toward finalizing a commercialization agreement with EOC Pharma, a U.S. subsidiary of Chinese specialty pharmaceutical company Eddingpharm (Taizhou) Co.
- OncBioMune, a Baton Rouge, La.-based biopharma, said the non-binding term sheet has guidelines for a 50/50 joint venture agreement to develop and commercialize EOC Pharma products throughout Mexico, Central America and Latin America. It specifically identifies the clinical development of telatinib, an oral VEGFR2/3 inhibitor, for treating gastric cancer. Eddingpharm acquired worldwide rights to telatinib from ACT Biotech in January 2014.
- The latest deal fits well with a deal OncBioMune closed earlier this week. On March 13, OncBioMune said it had completed its acquisition of Vitel Laboratorios a few days earlier.
Dive Insight:
The biopharma anticipates that the Vitel deal will transform it "into a revenue-generating international pharmaceutical company with a more diverse product line with a particularly deep reach throughout Mexico, Central and Latin America, and relationships across Europe and Asia."
The Vitel purchase helps OncBioMune to gain two drugs licensed and sold in Mexico—Bekunis for constipation and Cirkused for stress—along with a robust pipeline and extensive distribution network. Both over-the-counter products, approved for sale in fourth-quarter 2016, have had significant sales exceeding Vitel’s early projections, OncBioMune said. The company also noted that Vitel has seven other products in the registration stage or planned for launch later in 2017.
Vitel’s acquisition includes its 50% ownership stake in Oncbiomune México, a Mexican company that OncBioMune jointly launched with Vitel in August 2016. It aims to develop and commercialize OncBioMune’s Proscavax vaccine technology and cancer technologies in Mexico, Central and Latin America for treating prostate, ovarian and cancers.
OncBioMune CEO Jonathan Head said the Vitel deal "leapfrogs us years ahead in development, while providing cash flow to help fund development of our pipeline and commercialization of even more products."
The term sheet came up in talks between Vitel and EOC as OncBioMune was in the process of acquiring Vitel. OncBioMune said that EOC has informed it of its interest in proceeding toward a definitive agreement for developing telatinib in the middle and Latin American region under OncBioMune’s brand.
Head described the term sheet as an example of the partners and licensing opportunities now available to his company with the acquisition of Vitel. "Telatinib is a promising experimental drug that has the potential to provide a meaningful benefit to gastric cancer patients in great need across Middle America and Latin America,” he said. "We are encouraged by the eagerness of EOC to work with us and optimistic that we can have a binding agreement in place in the near term."
Vitel founder Manuel Cosme Odabachianis will become OncBioMune’s general manager of global operations and a member of its board of directors. He is expected to oversee Vitel’s Mexican operations, including the upcoming Phase 2/3 trial of ProscaVax for prostate cancer, and to spearhead international negotiations to further broaden OncBioMune’s portfolio, focusing on drugs in advanced stages of development or already on the market.